William tanner



@eine `taires getest @fitta IMPROVEMENT IN THEATRIGAL SCENEEY.

dit: Stigehnlt referat tu in time getint @mit animating. pitt nf tigt same.

'IO ALL 'WI-IOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Beit known that I, WILLIAM TANNER, of the city and county of New York, in the State of New York,V

have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Theatrical Scenery, and which I have styled a Golden Shower or Prismatic Torrent; and I-do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawing, making part of this specification, in which is shown one of the applications of my improvement.

This invention relates more especially to that variety of' scenery intended to represent the variousl phases of falling or moving` water, such as rain, conic fountains, water-falls, and the like, the drawing being intended to show the invention when applied to illustrate a rain scene.

The substantial parts of my invention consist of a roller, A, and a flat hattenv or strip of board, B, both of which, I provide with loops or holes, the one on the edge, and the other on the surface in the direction of its axis. Through these loops or holes, I place a thin and narrow strip of silver-plated metal, havinga polished or lustrous surface, as shown by a a, and tie the strip at each loop or hole, as I have shown by b b, in the drawing, thus dividing the strip in sections, and maintaining the general effect and union of the scene in case one of the sections breaks'. i

By these means the falling rain scene may be secured in all its completeness, by arranging on the stage, in a. properly-adjusted light, a series ol' these scene sections, one behind the other, as shown by A' A and B B, and by thenslightly moving either the roller or the hatten, so as to secure a quivering vibration of the strands or strips of polished metal, by' which the light is made to gleam and dance like rain in the sunlight, the effect being similar to that of a series of prisms under the influence of light and motion. I

The strands a a need not necessarily he of plated silver, but may be made of any thin sheet metal, or materialwith a surface suieientlylustrous and brilliant to give the desired effect under the iniiuence of light.

It' will be readily seen that these strands `may be arranged so as to produce a variety of Water scenes, such as waterfalls, fountains, and the like. I do not, therefore, intend to confine my claim to arrangement of the scene represented in the drawing, but what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The manufacture of theatrical water scenes, by arranging strips of thin, polished or lustrous metal in respect to each other, substantially as described7 upon the stage of a theatre, and in the light thereof', as set; forth.

WILLIAM TANNER.

-Witnesses:

WILLiAM H. Reeser,

JHN Rooney. 

